DoCoMo, Tata make open offer for TTML

Mumbai / Bangalore: Japan’s biggest mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. and India’s Tata Sons have priced their joint open offer for up to 20% shares in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, or TTML, at Rs24.70 a share, an advertisement by the manager to the offer showed.

On Wednesday, shares in TTML rose 7.6% to Rs17.99. The Mumbai stock market was closed on Thursday for a holiday. It rose 12.23% to Rs20.19 on Friday, the highest level since 3 October. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s sensitive index, or Sensex, lost 1.58%.

The open offer announcement in The Economic Times on Friday follows Wednesday’s deal that will see DoCoMo buy a 26% stake in unlisted Tata Teleservices Ltd, which owns 37.65% stake in TTML, for $2.7 billion. Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, holds 20.7% of the capital of TTML. The offer, which is mandatory under Indian law, opens on 8 January and closes on 27 January, the advertisement said. Lazard India Pvt. Ltd is managing the offer. Reuters / Bloomberg